One night in 2010 she went to pick up her boyfriend, Cecil Conner, who had too much to drink. During the trip, a Chicago Heights police officer pulled her over and took her in for a suspended license, leaving her son with Conner.

He later crashed the car, and 5-year-old Michael Langdon Jr. died. LaFond says the officer knew the risk because she told him three times.

It’s one reason she questions why a judge might have said she bore any responsibility. So does her attorney Mark Horwitz.